Keillor's seal of approval

It's another beautiful day in Lake Wobegon, and apparently residents of America's favourite fictional village will be reading the Guardian along with the church gazette. Garrison Keillor, creator of whimsical Lake Wobegon and the popular Prairie Home Companion radio show, has advised Americans looking for thought-provoking news and comment to turn to our humble news outlet.

In a letter on the Prairie Home Companion site, Keillor explains that in the Guardian he finds "reporting on the world, especially the war in the Middle East, that can't be found in American newspapers. Mainly, you get reporters who dare to say what they see and what they think. In this country, newspapers tend to treat news as a perishable item, like celery, so they shovel a bunch of it into print and then shovel in a new batch the next day, assuming that everything is quickly forgotten. But reporting is writing, and a piece of conscientious and thoughtful writing is worth a trainload of celery."

The Guardian … where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all the reporting is above average.